WWF Wrestlemania restoration: getting 'er back into the ring

[mourix]

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is Mourix. WELCOME TO WRESTLEMANIAAA 



Oh boy... he aint lookin so good




Time for a new project to make this cabinet great again. Let's go over the list of things that need to be sorted out:

• Monitor dead
• Power supply dead
• Jamma pcb state unknown
• Controls busted
• Coin doors rusty
• Missing locks
• Monitor bezel glass scratched up
• Control panel plexiglass busted
• Locks missing

Besides of the above, the artwork is in good condition and there is surprisingly little water damage. The next couple of months I will have loads of lockdown time to get this all done

[mourix]

With these restorations I always like to start with the game PCB, as it's the only part that truly can't be substituted with new parts. I built a jamma test rig with a scart TV and pc power supply. Wow, it actually works! I did have to glue all the ROM labels as they were falling off, put in a new CMOS battery and replace the single electrolytic cap while I was at it.

[Mike A]

Sweet. I will be watching.

[mourix]

With this cabinet came a great amount of documentation in mint condition. Most of these documents aren't fully available online, so I painstakingly scanned everything and made it into proper PDF's.
I'm contemplating on scanning my cab's sideart too, any interest?



Midway WWF Wrestlemania Dedicated Game Operation Manual
Midway WWF Wrestlemania QA Registration Card
Midway WWF Wrestlemania Tamper Screws Notice
Midway WWF Wrestlemania Coin Door Field Installation Instructions
Hantarex Polo Service Manual 10"-33" Multilingual
Hantarex Polo 25" RCA USA Schematic

[PL1]

Great scans.   


Scott

[mourix]

After making sure the game board was fine, my main goal was making sure the monitor worked. Arcade monitors are so rare in the Netherlands, a non-fixable unit would change the whole project.
This machine contains a 25 inch Hantarex Polo monitor. This model look pretty awesome, but for some reason every polo cabinet I got so far had a broken monitor. The WWF was no exception.

To get it even testable was quite a hurdle. First off, I live at my parents place during this pandemic so there are cats everywhere. To store it upstairs, I had to make this box:



Secondly, this was the RCA USA 110V model so I needed a proper transformer as I live in 230V Europe. In total Mourix style I built the most elaborate isolation transformer:



The hanty has the famous tick of death, meaning the overcurrent protection kicked in. I went over this flowchart and found the original HOT had already been replaced, but the holding clip tore off.
In the end, the culprit of the monitor problem turned out to be the flyback having an open winding. I was lucky to have a spare board with a new flyback I could compare and replace it with.
After this it was working with a stable image and proper B+. To make this screen pop I also gave it a cap kit and resoldered all the joints:



And this is the end result. Besides some minor screen burn, it has an amazing picture:

[mourix]

I just finished the control panel. This was quite the ride We are missing the plexiglass plus screws, got busted up controls and a CPO that has seen better days..

Here is the original:




I got myself some 2mm plexiglass, cut it up, drilled holes andddd crapppp:




Turns out you can't just drill plexi without proper bracing. And this is where the project already got in trouble as plexiglass is in high demand during the pandemic. Eventually I bought a new piece at triple market price and got it done better:




For the CPO I made my own scans and photoshopped it up. You can read more about that here. The result was really nice though:




Combine the two, and you get a pretty convincing result, despite some air bubbles due to the original cpo underneath:




For the controls I went all out with new IL joysticks and premium buttons, with Cherry switches of course:




This is the end result:

[mourix]

So I got my first big boy job after graduating, and time got kinda low. Steady progress has been made though.

All the metalwork has been painted at this point, and all the ordered parts are here. This huge beast will be put together like some Ikea closet soon!

For now, the backdoor has been finished too. Bondo, painting wood/bolts, plus a new lock:

[Mike A]

Very nice.

[Howard_Casto]

Now destroy the control panel by drilling two more button holes so you can play UMK3. 

[mourix]

The coin doors looked like crap. Rust, tape, and cat piss galore..


I repainted the doors and all the metalwork including nuts with Hammerite Hammered Black spraypaint as it gived that original look with very little prep.


I also made some custom coin reject inserts:


Next up, final assembly

[JimmyU]

I dig those custom coin reject inserts. Where did you get them made?

[Mike A]

I love it.

[mourix]

I dig those custom coin reject inserts. Where did you get them made?

I made them to size in photoshop and just printed them on the highest quality setting on my Epson printer

[PL1]

There's also a huge thread of printable coin return inserts on KLOV.

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/custom-coin-mech-reject-button-art.139731/


Scott

[Howard_Casto]

There's also a huge thread of printable coin return inserts on KLOV.

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/custom-coin-mech-reject-button-art.139731/


Scott

You've just opened a new world to me.  I know what I'll be doing this weekend. 

[mourix]

The original harness' spade connectors did not fit the cherry dx44 switches, so I got some new fancy blue ones to finish it up. The service manual for this machine got a nice wiring diagram so it was a matter of following the colors!


The original power supply was some broken Happ PC grade supply, so I got the highest quality replacement I could find. The IEC plug was kept original, but the Jamma voltage wires were already cut up before me.


Does anyone else find making power cables so satisfying?

[PL1]

There's also a huge thread of printable coin return inserts on KLOV.

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/custom-coin-mech-reject-button-art.139731/

You've just opened a new world to me.  I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

You may want to consider printing on overhead projector media or Avery Inkjet (8665 or 18665) or Laser (15665) clear full page labels instead of regular paper for better light transmission.
- For this application, you may need some thin (0.03" - 0.04"?) acrylic sheet behind the labels for stiffness and to give them something to adhere to.

Pretty sure Trekkers will like the ones on page 11.   


Scott

[pbj]

If you use an overhead projector sheet, print several and double them up when you stick it inside the insert.

[mourix]

I understand the above is ideal. In my experience, office paper and a good inkjet printer have been good enough for the girls I go out with

[mourix]

Final assembly time. The big plan here is to combine all the seperate parts like putting an Ikea cabinet back together.

First off I cleaned the empty cab, put back the monitor mounts with freshly painted bolts, and hauled it into my poor parents' living room.


Step 1: mounting the coin doors:


Step 2: mounting the PCB and power supply. It was a good thing I measured the power supply AC cord, as its a 115V line. Turns out this 230V export model just changed the transformer to 230V->115V keeping it all murican inside...


Step 3: monitor install. After verifying all the voltages and hearing the startup sound from the speakers, I put in the monitor and she fired right up after 15 years of being dead.


Step 4: marquee and control panel in. I am getting super excited at this point!


Step 5: putting the cleaned bezel and new glass in. My dad broke the old stored glass years ago so I got custom cut tempered glass... It's really as new now. (5mm thick, 670mm x 635mm for all ya metric peeps).


So there we are. It's alive! I'll be doing some finishing touches before I take the final end result pics but it's getting there

[mourix]

Final baby steps are being done. Yesterday I painted the back bottom part:



Also made some keychain bling

[Howard_Casto]

That's beautiful man.  Midway cabinets imho are the peak of arcade cabinet design.  The full sized photo realistic artwork always gets me and any cabinet with the Undertaker on the side is fantastic. 

[mourix]

Aaaaaand we're done! I am so happy with the end result

[emphatic]

Beautiful work. 

[Springdk]

Looks great! I like what you did with the control panel ... I’m thinking of making a control panel. Anyway you can upload that image again? Or send it to me?

Thanks

[mourix]

Looks great! I like what you did with the control panel ... I’m thinking of making a control panel. Anyway you can upload that image again? Or send it to me?

Thank you! Here ya go: https://www.sendspace.com/file/ezcyr0